This invention relates to an overhead door assembly, suitable in particular for use in vehicles such as railroad cars, comprising an overhead door, vertical guide members for guiding the overhead door in the vertical direction, and the horizontal guide members for guiding the overhead door in the horizontal direction, as well as driving means for opening and closing the door.
Such overhead door assemblies are known from practice and are used for example with sheds, garages and the like. An overhead door may consist of a single stiff panel and is then usually referred to by the term up-and-over door. There are also overhead doors known which are built up from a plurality of panels extending horizontally across the entire width of the door and hingedly interconnected. Such articulated doors are referred to by the term sliding door.
The known overhead doors are not satisfactory for use with vehicles such as railroad cars, because the use in railroad cars involve entirely different forces than in stationary uses. Doors of railroad cars may for instance be subject to very strong suction forces, but also to great compressive forces when the end doors of carriages are involved. Under these conditions, the doors should remain closed hermetically and should vibrate as little as possible.